Sand dunes, salt marshes and sculptures: Cycling the Sefton Coastal Path

You must be a keen cyclist,” laughed the receptionist in my Southport hotel. Apparently, saying I had cycled 21 miles from Southport to Crosby – and back – wasn’t a standard response to “how was your journey here today?”

I’d just tackled the Sefton Coastal Path, which can be walked or cycled on a combination of gravel and tarmac tracks. I’m not, in fact, an avid cyclist, but the route appealed to me as a way to explore this dramatic coastal area, which has the largest undeveloped dune system in England. 

It’s flat, so can be completed by beginners like me, and takes in a varied landscape, ranging from some of the northwest’s most interesting stretches of sand – Formby Beach, with its red squirrel reserve, and Crosby Beach, with Antony Gormley’s Another Place art installation – to the lively seaside town of Southport and vast salt marshes.    

There are three suggested stages to the route for those who would prefer to break it up, plus train stations along the way, offering the option to loop back quickly.

The starting point of Crossens roundabout at the north end of Southport feels slightly underwhelming but the path soon gets interesting.

We set off early; our only company was fellow cyclists and runners, and birdwatchers setting up for the morning.

As we passed the salt marshes near the RSPB Marshside Nature Reserve, two geese swooped overhead. With an almost cloudless blue sky, we could see all the way to Blackpool Tower and the southern hills of the Lake District.

The path can get busy with pedestrians in the popular spots of Southport, Formby and Crosby. In Southport, for example, we were weaving through family groups clutching buckets and spades while a train cheerily whistled from the town’s 160-year-old iron pier.

En route to Ainsdale, we were pleasantly distracted by wildlife. We didn’t see the elusive natterjack toad that lives in the dunes, but a weasel skittered twice across our track while we pushed our bikes past Formby Golf Course, and butterflies and dragonflies fluttered around us in clouds of fluffy rosebay willowherb seeds as we reached the pinewoods at Ainsdale Sand Dunes Nature Reserve.

A standout moment for me was turning a bend in the path from Hightown and emerging next to the glittering Irish Sea, looking south towards Crosby over a brick-strewn beach. This isn’t your typical picture-postcard stretch of sand, but the bricks tell a story, having been dumped here after buildings were bombed in the Liverpool Blitz during the Second World War.

It was an easy route from here to Crosby, where 100 Antony Gormley sculptures of cast iron men solemnly stare out to sea, some waist deep in sand, others proudly exposed. The coastal path here was under a layer of sand, so we dropped down to cycle on the beach, where some figures had been dressed up – one wearing a maroon tie and another with a plastic dinosaur balanced precariously on its head and sporting a colourful scarf.

We found the end point of the route next to Crosby Marine Lake and turned around to do it all again. With extra confidence in our directions heading back, we allowed time to take in more of the scenery.

At Formby, the cycle route doesn’t take you on to the beach itself and, determined not to go home without peeking at one of my favourite spots, I abandoned my bike with my husband and scrambled up a nearby dune.

Approaching the top, I heard a small girl exclaim: “I have my own private island, mummy!” as she stood, arms stretched wide, on a neighbouring peak. 

I shared her excitement as I caught my breath and looked out over the rippled expanse of sand, feeling ready to tackle the final 10 or so miles before a well-deserved G&T.

Southport is around a 40-minute drive from Liverpool and just over an hour from Manchester, and is well connected by trains.

Download the Sefton Coastal Path Route here.

Stay in Southport to combine seaside fun with impressive Victorian heritage.

The cool and colourful Bliss Hotel has a lakeside position, a funky rooftop bar and Betty, a room service robot who can deliver treats to your door. Doubles from £99 a night, B&B.

The sophisticated Vincent Hotel has a prime spot on tree-lined Lord Street. There are Japanese soaking tubs in most of the monochrome rooms, a spa and a buzzy restaurant. Doubles from £118 a night, including a full English or a continental breakfast ‘Tea Stand’.

The popular Auberge Brasserie has some great-value set menus featuring classic dishes such as steak and burgers, while Remedy on Lord Street is in the shadows of The Atkinson arts venue and serves light lunches and an impressive selection of gins.